


Behind Stone Walls

by paperjamBipper



Series: Memory Lane [4]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon, Suspense, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25271179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperjamBipper/pseuds/paperjamBipper
Summary: It's been almost a year since the Weirdmageddon incident. Thirteen year olds Dipper and Mabel return to Gravity Falls for their second summer in a row. Every trace of Weirdmageddon is gone, and Gravity Falls is more peaceful than ever. At least, they think it is.
Relationships: Dipper Pines & Ford Pines & Mabel Pines & Stan Pines
Series: Memory Lane [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1830763
Kudos: 22





	Behind Stone Walls

Dipper looks out the window of the bus and watched the trees pass by. He started to yawn, but he cut himself off halfway through. There was no way he was falling asleep. Not now. He had forced himself to stay awake this long just to see it and he wasn’t going to fall asleep now that he was sure it was coming up soon. He leaned his head against the window, which bounced against it every time the bus went over a bump. It hurt, but it kept him awake.

Sure enough, it was helping, because as soon as the area started looking somewhat familiar he smiled. He leaned over at Mabel, who was asleep on top of Waddles. He shook her gently. She groaned and pushed his hand away.

“Hey, it’s coming up soon” he whispers, loud enough for her to hear but not enough to disturb anyone else who had been on the bus since they left earlier that day.

Mabel shot up. “WHY DIDN’T YOU WAKE ME SOONER? LEMME SEE!” She yells, and Waddles hops off of her lap as she pushes herself against the window next to Dipper. “Did we pass it yet? Did I miss it?”

“I don’t think so. Maybe though, I could just be getting- oh, no, there it is”

Mabel gets her camera out, and flashes a picture of a sign as soon as the bus zooms by it.

“WELCOME TO OREGON: THE BEAVER STATE”

It’s been almost a year since Weirdmageddon ended. Everything’s done with and peace has finally been restored. Dipper and Mabel kept in touch with everyone, and were beyond excited when their parents allowed them to head back for the second summer in a row. Their begging to see everyone again was probably a big part of it.

“I can’t wait to see everyone again!” Mabel says, plopping back down on the seat. She swings her legs back and forth really quickly, the way she always does when she gets excited, and Dipper plops down next to her.

“I know! Do you think Wendy’ll want this back?” He asks, petting the hat she gave him the year before. “I’ve grown real fond of it. I’ll almost be sad to give it back”

Mabel laughs. “Pfft, THAT’S your concern? I would think getting to see Great Uncle Ford again is what would set you off”. She takes a dollar out of her sweater pocket, leans under her seat, and hands it to Waddles, who eats it. “I guess you were right all along” she says, and Dipper punches her.

“Oh, I’m stoked to see him again! Just, you know, Wendy and I haven’t talked that much since she’s in high school and all.”

Mabel rolls her eyes. “Yeah, sure. THAT’S why you want to see her again. I saw you taking a few pictures of her home. You still like her, don’t you?”

Dipper begins to blush, but shakes it off. “I’m working on it, okay? She’s the coolest person I’ve ever met. It’s hard to get over someone like her”

Before Mabel can say another word, the bus screeches to a stop so a deer can run by, and she glances out the window. She begins squealing. “Dipper, look!” she says, and Dipper joins her at the window. They stopped right in front of the sign reading “WELCOME TO GRAVITY FALLS”

“And look!” Mabel says, leaning out the row and pointing out the front window. “There’s the water tower! We’re so close! Auuughhh!” She begins shaking Dipper as she yells, who in response grabs her shoulders. This only gets her to break into hysterical laughter. “I’m sorry; I’m just SO HAPPY TO BE BACK!!” She yells, and when the bus starts moving again, Dipper brings a hand to her mouth so she can’t scream again. Dipper almost wants to scream himself, but holds it in. When he looks out the window again, he notices a few people following the bus on foot waving at him, and he waves back. Mabel joins him at the window barely even a second later and begins waving back as well. The crowd gets larger and larger as they approach the bus stop, and soon enough, they become able to pick out faces they recognize from the crowd. The bus begins to slow to a stop and so does the large crowd.

As soon as the bus doors open, they hear yelling out in the crowd, and when they get off the bus they see Stan and Ford pushing their way to the front. Dipper and Mabel drop their bags on the sidewalk, which causes them to look up from the crowd.

“Kiddos!” they yell in unison, and Dipper and Mabel run into their open arms. Dipper runs to Stan, and Mabel to Ford. They run at them so hard they fall over, but all they do is laugh.

“We missed you guys so much!” Stan says as he stands up, rubbing Dipper’s hair before opening his arms for Mabel.

“You guys were the only things on our mind when you were away.” Ford says, opening his arms for Dipper, who runs into them. He takes a step back afterwards, a little embarrassed, but Ford only smiles and brings him in closer. Dipper laughs.

“So, where are the others?” Dipper asks, looking up at Ford.

“Uh...they must’ve been busy. They’ll see you later today. Said they were sorry they couldn’t come to meet you at the bus stop” Stan says, and Dipper frowns.

“Oh”

“Hey, don’t get so down about it. Come on,” Stan says as he picks up Dipper’s bags. “Let’s get you two moved back into your bedroom in my-” he pauses, glancing over at Ford, whose on one knee telling something to Mabel. “I mean- our attic.” He slaps Ford on the back as he walks by, which surprises him. He stands up, looking at Mabel.

“I guess we’re going now. Come on” He says, holding out his hand to Mabel. She takes it, and together the four of them begin to walk to the Mystery Shack.

“So what have you guys been doing since we last saw you?”

“We were out in the world treasure hunting!” Stan yells, and Mabel gasps.

“Really?”

“Really” Ford replies.

“That’s so cool! Did you bring anything back for me?”

Stan glances over at Ford in an I-told-you-she’d-ask kind of manner, who rolls his eyes at him in response.

“Sure we did, sweetie! I just don’t have it on me right now”

“You guys sure did forget a lot of stuff, are we missing something?” Dipper asks as they round the corner past the “UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT” banner stapled to an ad for the Mystery Shack and stop in front of its gift shop doors.

“Yes, and I’m surprised you of all people haven’t figured out what it is yet, kiddo” Stan says, reaching into his pant pocket and taking keys out of them.

“What do you mean…?” Dipper begins to ask, but his voice trails off when Stan and Ford hurriedly rush into a pitch black gift shop. Dipper and Mabel try to see where there’s going in such a hurry, so they follow them in at the same speed. The lights switch on as soon as they step foot indoors, which causes them to skid to a stop. Everyone they met over the course of the previous summer jumps out at them from different places around the little shop.

“SURPRISE!!” they all yell at the same time

“Guys!!” they both yell, running off to different parts of the shop. Mabel runs straight to Grenda and Candy. Grenda picks Mabel up and spins her around. Mabel then turns around and hugs Candy. When she sees Pacifica standing shyly behind them, she backs away from Candy.

“Come on. You too. You know you want to” she says, opening her arms, and Pacifica rolls her eyes. She reaches out to Mabel slowly, but Mabel responds by grabbing her in a bear hug.

While Mabel does that, Dipper runs right to Wendy, whose still wearing the hat she took from him the summer before.

“Heh, guess we had the same idea” She says, taking her hat off Dipper’s head and ruffling his hair before placing the hat back on his head. She kneels down to get on his level. “C’mere” she says, opening her arms, and he hugs her tightly.

“I missed you so much!” Dipper says, not letting go of her, and Wendy laughs.

“I missed you too, man. More than you can imagine. There’s a kid that looks just like you in a few of my classes, actually.”

“Really?” Dipper says, backing away from their hug.

“Yeah, and now I’m dating him.”

“WHAT?” Dipper yells in a flustered manner, and Wendy laughs.

“I’m just kidding. We are pretty good friends though. I will give you that”

“I hate you”

“I hate you too” she says, pulling him back into another hug.

Meanwhile, Stan and Ford are watching from another room.

“Man, these people really love the kids, don’t they?” Ford says, taking in the large crowd that came to see the twins’ arrival.

“Can you blame them? Just look at them” Stan says, gesturing to them. Mabel’s using her grappling hook to grab a bag of chips for Pacifica, who refused them at first but then grabbed them, probably realizing she hadn’t eaten since she woke up that morning. Wendy’s holding her hat right above Dipper’s head, whose attempting to jump up and grab it from her. He shouts something about Robbie’s skinny jeans, and when all her friends turn to look for Robbie, Dipper grabs the hat back. When they glance back over at him to tell him that he seems to be doing okay, they all begin to laugh.

Ford smiles. “They are incredible.”

\--

The party ended about two hours ago. Everyone but a few of the twins’ closest friends has either gone home or are saying their goodbyes for now. Stan’s watching a movie, and Ford’s down in the basement. Dipper and Mabel are sitting in the front porch. Dipper’s hat, which he had grabbed from the gift shop, was sitting on his lap. The one Wendy gave him was sitting on his bed up in the attic.

A small breeze begins to blow by, which brings Dipper’s attention to the forest. A few birds are flying out of it, and a small creature, most likely a gnome, runs right by the path that leads to it.

Dipper nudges Mabel.

“Hey, wanna go for a walk in the woods? You know, just for the heck of it?”

“What, you mean where all the dangerous creatures live? You mean the place those old books you read told you that was the one place NOT to go for a casual stroll?” She asks sarcastically, before standing up and reaching into the cushion of the couch behind her. “Of course!!” she says, pulling her grappling hook from it and twirling it around in her hands. She grabs Dipper’s waist, aims the grappling hook at a random tree, and shoots. Before Dipper has time to ask what she did that for, she retracts the grappling hook, pulling herself and Dipper to the tree branch, surprising Dipper so much that he begins to scream and squeeze his eyes shut until his two feet are back safely on the ground.

“Mabel, I thought I told you not to do that!”

“What? We’re closer to the forest, right? I just saved us about two minutes of walking. Come on!” she says, as she dashes ahead of him into the forest.

“Hey, wait up!” he says, and runs after her.

About half an hour after they started walking, Dipper stops in place. He looks around himself in a circle, and seems to find himself in a narrow opening. The weather seems to be much heavier and wetter than other parts of the forest, and there’s a large amount of pine trees in the area, compared to the maybe one or two that were surrounding the shack.

Dipper turns around to walk backwards for a moment. “Uh, Mabel? Do you have any idea where we are?”

“Of course I do! I’ve been leaving a trail of mittens so we can retrace our steps when we want to head back. Why?”

“Because something about this place is…well, giving me the creeps. I’m not sure this part of the forest was here last summer”

Mabel snickers. “What, like a hundred different trees can just pop out of nowhere over the course of a year? I’m sure it’s nothing. We probably weren’t over here a lot last summer. We are pretty deep into the forest.”

“Still,” Dipper says, continuing to walking backwards so he can face Mabel. “Something about this area feels wrong. Like there’s something here that shouldn’t be”

Just before Mabel can respond, Dipper trips over something sticking out, and hits his head on the forest floor. He rubs his head right where it hit, and when he’s finally able to open his eyes, he finds himself face to face with

Bill.

Dipper, despite the headache the impact gave him, jumps up and scampers to Mabel’s side out of fear. When his head finally stops hurting, he’s able to get a better view of it, and realizes what he had tripped over wasn’t actually Bill himself, but what appeared to be a statue of him.

“What is this thing?” Dipper asks, stepping out from behind Mabel.

“I don’t know” Mabel says, kneeling down in front of it and poking at the eye with her grappling hook. “But it’s kinda creepy. Who would make a statue of him and bury him in the woods like some kinda ceremony?”

“I don’t know if it was buried by someone” Dipper says, joining her at her side. “It’s sticking out too awkwardly. If someone was trying to bury it I feel like they would’ve done a better job”

“Hm. Maybe we should turn around”

“No, I’ve got a better idea” Dipper smiles. “Do you happen to have any spray paint on you?”

Mabel frowns. “No, why?”

“No reason.” Dipper says almost playfully, reaching down and picking up a pinecone. “I guess this’ll have to do instead” he says, backing up a few inches before chucking it at the statue.

“Dipper, what are you…” Mabel starts, but then her voice trails off, and she grins widely. She picks up a rock sitting by her foot and tosses it at it. The two of them go back and forth throwing stuff at it, when Dipper gets an idea. He walks over to it, sits down beside it, and takes out his phone. He makes a stupid face, and flashes a picture. Mabel laughs, and then walks over to the statue and does the same thing to it.

When Dipper notices what part of the statue he tripped on, he stands up. “Hey Mabel, check this out. It’s holding out its hand.” He walks over and stands beside the hand, and in an over exaggerated manner, begins to yell. “Of course I’ll make a deal with you! Only one thing though” he says, and backs up until he’s leaning against a tree. “You’re gonna have to come to me to seal it” he says, holding out his hand. This makes Mabel laugh. After a few seconds of silence, Dipper gasps. “What? Moving forward a few inches isn’t worth unimaginable power? Weirdmageddon part two? Wow, you’ve gotten much lazier than when I last saw you.” This makes Mabel laugh even harder. Dipper glances down at the statue and nods as if it’s talking to him. “Uh-huh, Uh-huh, hmm. Alright, I’ll take a step forward and make it easier for you, no sweat” He takes another step forward.

“Okay, okay, Dipper, stop! You’re killing me!” Mabel says, wiping a tear from her eye, walking over to him to stand next to him. She glances down at the statue as well for a few moments, and then nudges Dipper.

“Dare you to actually shake its hand”

“Are you crazy?” Dipper says, recollecting what happened the last time he was dared to do something like that. “What if it tries to switch places with me or something? So Bill will be out here and I’ll be the one trapped as some weird stone statue people come and throw rocks at?”

“Easy, there. He’s dead. Stan told us what happened the other day on the phone, remember? Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? You get year-old dirt under your fingernails? That doesn’t seem to bother you now.

“Oh, hush” Dipper says, pushing on her face. “I suppose you’re right. But if I get sick or something because of this I’m blaming you”

He kneels down in front of the statue, and, while looking the other way, grabs the statue’s hand. After a few seconds of nothing happening, he sighs, and looks back over at the statue.

“See? What did I tell you?” Mabel says, and looks up at the sky. “Whoops, looks like it’s getting dark. We should head back before Stan worries too much and sends a search party after us or something”

Dipper laughs. “Alright, just give me a second”

As he goes to stand up, he finds he can’t pull away from the statue, and his face goes pale. He looks over at Mabel.

“I’m stuck”

“Oh, psshh, sure you are. Come on, I’m serious. I’m getting hungry”

“Mabel, I’m not kidding” he says, yanking on his hand with his free arm. “It won’t budge”

“What? Let me try” She says, and walks over to Dipper’s outstretched hand. She grabs onto Dipper’s hand and begins to pull on it. When she’s unsuccessful, she begins pulling on it even harder, and drops her hands to her side when Dipper gasps in pain.

“Go get Stan and Ford! They’ll know what to do” Dipper almost yells at her in a panicked voice

“What? I’m not leaving you here!” Mabel says. “There’s gotta be a way to pry your arm away from it.” She aims her grappling hook at the statue’s arm. “Here, I’ll try to-” she starts, but Dipper cuts her off.

“No!” he yells, but then clears his throat and speaks more quietly. “It’s okay. Go. It’s not like I’m going anywhere”

Mabel stays where she is for a minute, unsure what to do with herself, but then sighs and runs off yelling for Ford and Stan. As soon as she’s gone, Dipper yanks on his arm one more time and the little stone hand breaks off so suddenly it knocks him over.

“Wait, Mabel!! Come back!!” He starts yelling, trying to get Mabel’s attention. As he’s yelling her name, the small hand forms into an entire arm. Dipper doesn’t seem to take notice, and keeps yelling his sister’s name. “Mabel!! It broke off! Come back!! Come-” He pauses when he sees a flash of bright yellow light, and slowly turns around. When he finds himself holding hands with Bill, his entire face goes pale. He rips his arm away from Bill and tries to escape. “Mabel, I’m serious! COME BACK!!” He yells, trying to escape, but Bill jumps in front of Dipper before he can get far. This scares Dipper so much he falls back and clutches his chest, breathing heavily.

“Well, Well, Well. Isn’t this interesting?” Bill says, and all Dipper can do in response is back up. He’s still unable to speak. Bill floats closer to him.

“I-” He squeaks out, and coughs weakly. “I, but, but we defeated you!! For real this time!!” Dipper continued to back up, and Bill continued to inch closer. This continues until Dipper is leaning against the stone statue of Bill, which only makes him flinch.

“Oh, you did, Pine Tree. You did. Your old uncle Stanley blew me to pieces! Trapped my physical form in the very statue you’re leaning against now”

Dipper crawls away from it, which just makes Bill laugh.

“The thing is, I invoked the ancient power of Xolotl to return the next time someone was dumb enough to fall for my tricks. I didn’t know it ran in the family!” He says, reaching down to pet Dipper’s hair, who slaps his hand away

“What are you talking about?”

“You see kid, this isn’t just any old random statue of me” He says, leaning on the hat portion of it. “This is actually me. My body. I was holding out my hand waiting for someone to shake it for access in their mind.” He floats very closely to Dipper and moves down to his eye level. “I’ve been trapped behind stone walls for too long, Pine Tree. Weirdmageddon’s over. Your uncle got his precious memories back, and now I think it’s time you return the favor”

“Favor? What fav-” He starts, but one touch in the forehead from Bill and he’s out cold.

\--

“Grunkle Stan!! Great Uncle Ford!! Come Quickly!!!” Mabel shouts, sprinting out of the woods towards the shack. She stops to catch her breath, but when she sees the two of them heading out to sit on the couch with two bottles of Pitt cola in their hands, she takes a big gasp of air in and runs up to them.

“Guys!!!” she shouts, and when they look up and see her out of breath, they put their bottles down on the couch and head over to her.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Stan says, kneeling down her eye level.

“It’s Dipper! Something’s wrong with him. He’s still in the woods. No time to explain. Hurry!” She yells, and turns around and heads back into the woods. Stan and Ford exchange glances only for mere seconds before following Mabel.

\--

When Ford and Stan burst their way into the clearing, Dipper appears to be leaning against the statue. He’s facing away from them, and he’s looking up at something. He’s saying something, but it’s not clear what.

“Dipper?” Ford asks, and when Dipper hears Ford’s voice, he freezes. Ford stops where he is. “Dipper, are you okay?” He asks, picking up his pace again. He gently places a hand on Dipper’s shoulder, who whips around as soon as Ford’s hand touches him. When Ford’s met with glowing yellow eyes instead of Dipper’s young brown eyes, he takes a few steps back.

“Well, look who it is. Surprised to see me so quickly?”

He walks over to Stanley. “I gotta hand it to you especially! That punch of yours really hurt. But hey, if your useless memories came back, I decided I wasn’t done having my fun either!

Ford has to physically hold Stan back from hurting him at that comment.

“What did you do to my brother?” Mabel yells, and Ford has to grab her shoulder to hold her back as well.

“What, him?” Bill asks, gesturing to himself. “He’s right here! Can’t you hear him screaming your names?” He says, gesturing right next to him. Mabel and Stan start squirming, and Ford has to strain himself to keep them away from him.

“Why are you doing this, Cipher?” Ford asks, and Bill grins and walks over to him.

“Because I can! Remember when old Stanley here agreed to let me into his mind? I left my physical body to enter his mind. When I returned sometime after Weirdmageddon ended, I was stuck in that awful stone body. However, this sucker is stuck so deeply in the ground I couldn’t move. So I waited for someone to come by and shake my hand for consent into their body, and who better to do it than my puppet! Who knew he would be the one asking for an encore?”

“He didn’t agree to this!” Ford yells, dropping his arms from Mabel and Stan’s shoulders. This time, they’re the one holding him back from hurting Bill. “He didn’t shake your hand! He was messing with your statue! You really think someone who was throwing stones at it would suddenly decide they wouldn’t mind if you entered their mind? No!”

“Woah, easy there Fordsy! I’m only doing this to have a good time. I think I deserve to have a little fun!”

“You had plenty fun last summer! Get out of his body!”

“Hmm….okay!” Bill says, backing up. “But you’re gonna have to catch me first!” He yells before running off in a random direction in the woods.

“After him!” Ford yells, and the three of them all run off in different directions. Ford follows the direction Bill went, and soon enough sees Mabel chasing after him. He speeds up to join her.

When Bill looks behind him and sees that Ford and Mabel are after him, he picks up his speed. He takes a very sudden turn and Ford crashes into Mabel trying to make the turn. They continue to chase him, but no matter how fast they run, they can’t seem to catch up to him.

“Give it up, Bill! I know for a fact Dipper didn’t sleep ONCE on our seven and a half hour ride here. If you don’t willingly get out of his body it’s gonna kick you out”

“Nice try, shooting star!” Bill yells as he looks behind him at her. “This time’s different. I don’t know if the kid ate something or drank something to make him feel this way, but he’s wide awake! I could run for hours!”

That’s right. Dipper had brought a travel mug full of coffee with him. It was his first time drinking it, and he had decided that because he was 13 now, he was finally old enough to “handle” it. He wanted to bring it with him so he wouldn’t miss any familiar sights or the moment when the bus pulled into town. However, since the coffee was so bitter on its own, he had poured a few teaspoons of sugar in it. So not only was Bill running on caffeine right now, he was also running on sugar.

“Still! Even if you don’t get tired you’re gonna run out of breath. You think Dipper’s the fittest person in the family? The three of us could outrun him any day!”

“Oh please, I’m sure Pine Tree could trample both of you! I bet he just pretends because you’re his sister and his hero!” He turns his head back to see where he’s going to jump over a tree stump, and then looks back over at them. “The only person I’d really have to worry about is Stanley, but he’s nowhere in sight!” He says, but as he says that, he slams into something so hard he falls over. When he looks up, Stan is leaning against a tree. Once again, he winks at him and clicks his tongue. Bill scoots back uncomfortably, trying to escape, but bumps into Ford and Mabel. He stands up to brush himself off.

“Grunkle Stan, that was amazing!!” Mabel beams. “How did you know he was going to end up here?”

“Kid, when you’ve lived somewhere for over thirty years, you’re bound to know every inch of the place like the back of your own hand. It took me a while to figure out where he’d end up, but after I noticed you were running north, towards the cliff, I figured you’d end up over here eventually and just decided to wait it out.”

Stan kneels down in front of Bill. He holds up his left fist, and he’s wearing his brass knuckles. “Now, leave my nephew alone or else”

“Or else what? You’ll punch me? All you’re going to do if you punch me now is hurt Dipper. We don’t want that, now do we?” He asks, grinning widely, and Stan only responds by smirking back.

“Nope” he says, and pulls a memory gun out of his jacket pocket. Bill starts to panic when he sees it.

“You…You can’t do that!” He starts stuttering. “If you use that on me you’re going to erase Dipper’s mind! There’s going to be nothing left!”

Mabel steps forward. “Stan, I hate to agree with _him_ ,” she pauses, scrunching her face in. “But he’s right! You can’t just erase Dipper’s mind!”

Stan puts the gun back in his pocket, and gets up before kneeling in front of Mabel. “It’s okay, sweetie. I’ve got a plan. Do you trust me?” He whispers, smiling shyly at her, and she nods.

“I trust you.”

“Good.” He stands up and walks back over to Bill, pulling the gun back out of his pocket. He aims it at him, but doesn’t type anything into it.

“I’m- I’m being serious!” Bill stutters again.

Stan winks at Mabel, and then shrugs. “Well, I guess I don’t have to shoot you. On one condition”

“Anything!!” Bill shouts, almost begging. “I’ll give up Pine Tree’s body no sweat!” he says, but before he can leave it, Stan shakes his head.

“No. Come with me” Stan says, and begins walking back tin the direction towards the statue. Bill follows closely behind, trying to hide the obvious amount of panic he’s feeling right now. Ford and Mabel look at each other and shrug, and follow behind Stan and Bill.

Once they’re back at the statue, Stan pokes Bill in the back.

“Sit down” He says, and Bill plops down right next to the statue.

“Now,” Stan says, typing something into the gun before aiming it at him again. “I’m going to say it again. Get out of my nephew’s body.”

“This-This is crazy! You’re bluffing!” Bill yells, and Stanley puts his fingers on the gun’s trigger.

“Try me”

“Okay! Okay!” He says, throwing his hands up in the air. He rips himself out of Dipper’s body, and the entire world goes grayscale.

“Now get back into that statue.”

“And how will you know I won’t come back out of it when you walk away?” Bill asks, and Ford joins Stan at his side. Stan aims his memory gun at him, and Ford takes his gun out of his pocket. Bill backs up towards the statue.

“Okay, Okay, I’m going. Sheesh” Bill floats back down into the statue, and the entire word restores its color. A few seconds pass before Dipper stands up, rubbing his head. When he opens his eyes and they’re back to his normal color, Mabel and Stan run to him and hug him.

“Kiddo!”

“Dipper! You’re okay!”

They both pull away after a few seconds. Stan smiles at Mabel. “I told you you could trust me” He says, and she hugs him. When Ford approaches Stan, Stan stands up.

“Stanley, that was…” he pauses, and Stan grins

“Amazing?” He beams, and Ford smiles.

“Yes” he says, but then frowns. “But how are we sure he’s not going to come back?”

Stan tosses him the memory gun. “Already got that covered. Will you do the honors?” He asks, and Ford looks down. “BILL CIPHER” is already inserted into the gun.

Ford smiles, and aims the gun at the statue. Before he can pull the trigger, he pauses for a minute and looks over at Stan to make sure he’s at a distance safe enough where he won’t be affected by it. Stan gives him two thumbs up when they make eye contact, so Ford sighs in relief before looking back over at the statue. He takes aim, and, without even blinking, takes a shot at the statue. He keeps shooting at it until the gun’s light fades. Then, without him realizing it, Stan swipes his real gun from his pocket. 

“Get down!” He says, and Ford and with the kids duck their heads.

Stan takes aim, and shoots at the statue. The gun is so powerful the statue explodes on impact, and none of it is left but the part that’s still buried in the ground. Stan drops the gun on the ground, and Dipper and Mabel are the first to stand up. They run to him, and he picks them up in a hug.

“That was awesome!!” Dipper yells, and Mabel beams.

“Stan, you’re our hero!! Again!” she says, and hugs Stan back with her one free arm. Stan gently places the twins back down on the ground, and walks over to Ford. Ford opens his mouth to speak, but Stan cuts him off by throwing his arms around him in a hug. He’s about to pull away when Ford doesn’t hug back right away, but before he can, Ford throws his arms around Stan as well. This makes Stan laugh happily. He pulls away, and then walks over to the kids. He holds out their hands, and they each take one.

“Come on kids. Let’s go back and get something to eat”

Stan and the kids walk off, and Ford begins to follow them, but stops once they’re out of sight. He turns around and walks to the remains of the statue sticking halfway above the ground. Placing both hands on it, he pushes it deeper into the earth before covering the spot with the surrounding dirt. He then stands up to look at it, nods, and then runs off to catch up with Stan and the kids.


End file.
